Dance

Two of the most famous theatres in the world are falling apart. Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre was built in 1825. The Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg opened in 1860. Both are now undergoing long overdue restoration. The Bolshoi is already closed, the Mariinsky is about to be. But that’s not the real reason why Russia’s top two ballet companies are both in London this summer.

A year ago the impresario team of Lilian and Victor Hochhauser announced that they would be presenting the Mariinsky Ballet at Covent Garden. The average punter could be forgiven for asking: ‘Who?’ Since the Soviet era the Mariinsky has travelled around the world as the Kirov. The name was foisted on the company in 1934 as a tribute to Sergei Kirov, an assassinated Stalinist bigwig. Now its original name has finally been restored, years after Leningrad once again became St Petersburg.Unexpectedly, a few months back we were told that the Mariinsky visit was off and that the Hochhausers would be bringing us the Bolshoi instead. Insiders couldn’t quite figure out what was going on. Rumours began flying. Feature continues

Next, and out of the blue, it was announced that the London-based Mariinsky Theatre Trust would be presenting the Mariinsky Opera and Ballet at the Coliseum the week before the Bolshoi arrives at Covent Garden. This announcement looked like a real spoiler. Gazumped? The box office will provide the answer.

The hook for the Mariinsky’s London season is the centenary of one of its most celebrated sons, composer Dimitri Shostakovich. The two ballet bills include a danced version of his ‘Leningrad Symphony’, a monumental mourning paean to the 900-day Nazi siege of his city. There’s also a brand-new version of ‘The Golden Age’, which had its first performance in St Petersburg just weeks ago. This is a boisterous footballers’ ballet originally staged in 1930 but abandoned a year later. The plot centres on a travelling Soviet team involved in a battle of oneupmanship with what was then perceived to be the fascistic West. The Mariinsky commissioned its new version of the ballet as a part of the Shostakovich anniversary.

The Hochhausers were equally intent on honouring Shostakovich, who died in 1975. ‘We were very close to him, we produced the British premieres of five of his symphonies,’ says Lilian rattling off the numbers on her fingers. The Hochhausers’ Bolshoi season will include one of Shostakovich’s three ballets, ‘The Bright Stream’. Loathed by Stalin, it is a commune comedy, energetic, at times even farcical. This will be the London premiere of a production that has already garnered great reviews at home, in Paris and elsewhere.